Greetings England.

No weekend Blog cos I have spent the w/e sending pics to Q for your perusal.

2 very pleasant days of gardening, burning (tiny, CONTROLLED) fires,weeding
eating & generally catching up with all the corres I have neglected since
my move from South to North.

Welcome to 2 new readers, Hadders & Pete the G.

Hadders, it's like you said 'What happens on the island - stays on the island'

Blog is the same, not for general team perusal.

Pete, I still giggle whenever I think of you & funerals. I told the farm-hands at
Marfell Downs.

Same reaction as the Cad Room that day. Shock, disbelief then uncontrolled
mirth.

I understand the Big Guy has been 'helping' you in Custody. Never a dull moment I bet ?

'Quick, quick, the guy in Cell 4 is pouring paraffin over himself as Q yet again tries to explain the workings of the live-scan system !'

Welcome to you both, Hadders I can see you settling down for your daily fix with a cup of tea & your pinny on. I miss your cups of tea here, it's just not the same making your own.

There has been no water here since yesterday. There is a problem with the pump which supplies water & the call-out charge would have been horrific for the w/e so yesterday was bottled water which Michelle had set aside in their 'earthquake provisions' As I went to bed last night someone had thoughtfully provided a bucket of pool water outside my french doors for the flushing of the loo.

It's the Kiwi equivalent of a hotel putting a choccy on your pillow I suppose.

The chap has just turned up to examine the pump. It's really bad news. He says that the pump is stuck & if he cannot dislodge it it may be $10,000 to rectify !! That seems an unfeasibly huge amount of money but as you can imagine, even if the people can do without water for a while on a farm the stock certainly can't.

The irony of the torrential rain last Wed/Thu/Fri is not lost.

He looked at Ben (pronounced Bin over here) & said 'He's not short of a feed or two is he ?'

Quiet day planned today, going into Whatamata with Michelle to get some stuff for the garden & transfer some $ to a GB account.

Just heard from Lindsay that Pippa Funnel won Burghley which is good news (her yard is a couple of miles away from Leith Hill, so I consider her 'local') & more surprisingly that Neil Hodgson won the WSB World Championship. As pleased I am that a Brit has won it I would be more pleased if he were a Tyke & not a Lanc !

Must go now, will be logging on this evening hoping to see pics.

Night-night all,

Cx

ps. Forgot to say ... the fire brigade came past yesterday morning.
I didn't hear them but Michelle says they gave us a blast on their 2-tones !
A 'thank-you' for the Waikato Draught & Export Gold no doubt.

On that note, I went to bed on Saturday night after dancing up & down on
the remaining embers from my fire like some latter-day overly-large
Rumpelstiltskin.

I awoke an hour later & could smell smoke !

I rushed to the windows expecting to see an inferno.

There was nothing to see so I started to go back to bed.

I couldn't leave it at that tho & had to go down the drive in wellies & d.gown to check there
was nothing still alight. As I re-entered my bedroom I realised the smell of smoke
came from the clothes I had been building bonfires in.

Der !

:)